I had been considering writing a post about holidays, partly inspired by the thread started by Paul Morton of Hot Frog Graphics on the SCBWI-BI email group. He told us what things he thinks about taking on holiday – and what he actually takes, then asked what everyone else does. Interesting stuff.

Then my Wonderful Other Half or Him-at-the-Back-of-the-Garage-Who-can’t-Resist-a-Bargain asked would I like to go diving in Egypt for a week? On Saturday? Would I !

Now there isn’t a lot to say about packing for a live-aboard. Once you’ve got the necessities:

mask

snorkel

regulators

BCD

weight-belt

wetsuit

wetsuit boots

fins

dive computer

swimming costume

beer money

…there’s only room for a couple of sarongs and T-shirts left in your dive bag. OK I shall have a notebook & pen, and my Kindle in my backpack, but that’s it.

So it was rather serendipitous to read the results of a survey in the Sept 2012 Divermagazine that asked ‘What’s the best thing about diving?’ Here’s my summary of the results:

Entering another world

Being with your own thoughts

Escaping from the mundane

Freedom

Adventure

The fellowship of others

Any of this sound familiar to my creative friends? Add in the fact that the vast majority of divers I’ve met over almost a decade are rather individual people, and there will be wrecks and maybe sharks, then you can see why I’ve jumped at the chance.